Wireless through light waves at CIIE

Signify, formerly Philips Lighting, presents its most advanced LiFi technology at the ongoing first China International Import Expo. [Photo by Mi Xingang/China.org.cn]

Signify, formerly Philips Lighting, presented its most advanced LiFi technology at the ongoing first China International Import Expo (CIIE) running in Shanghai from Nov. 5 to 10.

LiFi, which stands for Light Fidelity, is a type of high-speed bi-direction wireless communication technology, introduced Shen Xiaohui, vice president and head of marketing of Signify Greater China, at the exhibition stand. It can use light waves from LEDs, rather than radio waves, to access the internet, he added.

Signify can provide customers with light facilities with both functions of illumination and secure wireless internet connection at a speed of 30Mb per second, Shen noted. Users can connect an internet cable to a LiFi enabled light and it can modulate and send data downwards, and then a USB access key inserted on one's laptop can receive the data and send them back upwards.

It is reported that some 50 billion devices are expected to be connected to the internet by 2022 and many of them are wireless meaning that the radio spectrum will be overloaded. LiFi can be an ideal alternative for WiFi, expressed Shen, especially in locations where radio waves are not permitted or have poor signals, such as hospitals, factories, planes and underground. Since light cannot penetrate through walls, LiFi can offer additional layers of security for banks and government departments, he added.

"In the digital era, LiFi has enormous market potential," said Qiu Ronghong, chief innovation officer of Signify. "Being a leading illumination enterprise, Signify is committed to offering innovative solutions for customers and I am proud of that."

"Light can be a new intelligent language and this is a game changing technology," a visitor exclaimed at the exhibition stand.